1. Area of the Art
The present invention is in the art of musical instruments and more particularly in the area of percussion instruments.
2. Description of the Background Art
The use of foot-operated percussive musical instruments is well known. For example, there is a wide range of pedal operated drums and cymbals. The most common design is a floor mounted foot pedal that causes a drum stick to impinge on a drum. In the case of cymbals, the foot pedal often causes one cymbal of a cymbal pair to be lifted above a second cymbal so that the first cymbal will fall into contact with the second cymbal when the pedal is released. This concept has also been extended to tambourines and related instruments. Such devices consist basically of structural configurations to hold and vertically or horizontally oscillate a tambourine or similar instrument.
For example, published U.S. Patent Application Number 200510028667 discloses a foot operated playing device for playing the tambourine with the left or right foot. This device is for playing the tambourine with either foot by attaching the removable strap to either foot. This allows the user to play more than one instrument at a time, such as a guitar and the tambourine. The foot operated device is suspended from the ground surface by the adjustable foot strap that is movable from left or right foot.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,957 discloses another foot operated tambourine playing device. The device comprises a base panel, a foot pedal pivotally coupled to the base panel. The foot pedal has a tambourine coupled to a lower surface. The upper surface of the tambourine foot pedal has a corrugated surface for frictionally engaging a foot.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,197 discloses yet another foot pedal drive for simulating tambourine hand-striking. The invention provides a tambourine type instrument that simulates a hand-impact operation through a foot operation which is controllable throughout the rocking cycle to provide a full range of light-to-heavy percussive effects in the full range of frequencies. This musical instrument oscillates a tambourine that has a rim by using a downward motion of the foot on a pedal of a pedal-assembly that mounts the tambourine.
U.S. published Patent Application Number 200710234874 discloses a tambourine comprising a rigid, enclosed, jingle-supporting frame that defines a center of gravity and a number of pairs of percussion jingles connected to the frame at determined locations around one of the frame's segments. The tambourine comprises a plurality of pairs of percussion jingles connected to the frame at predetermined locations. A handle for manually grasping the frame is provided which is connected to a second segment of the frame.
However, none of these references disclose a simple percussive instrument that can be directly manipulated by the user's foot.